Exclusion Certificate - "Certificate of Exclusion" - Official document of Jewish soldier Israel Hirschfeld stating that he is excluded from the ranks of the German Wehrmacht due to being "Jewish". Berlin, August 2, 1939. Rare.
At the top of the form it is written that Israel Hirschfeld, born in 1907, is "hereby released from service in the Wehrmacht" due to being Jewish. The word Jew - Jude is written in red ink. Three Wehrmacht ink stamps from Berlin, and Hirschfeld's passport photo on the left. Signature and stamp of the district military commander.
The German Wehrmacht - the German armed forces from 1935-1945 were under the direct leadership of Adolf Hitler and from its inception efforts were made to purge Jews of apparent German appearance whose origins were unclear from its ranks. According to American historian Bryan Mark Rigg in his book "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" no less than 150,000 German Jews served in the German Wehrmacht. Among them were also those who reached officer ranks such as Field Marshal Erhard Milch responsible for German military aircraft production, General Helmuth Wilberg who also served in the German Air Force, and Admiral Bernhard Rog, commander of Germany's Western naval forces. One of the most famous was Werner Goldberg, a soldier defined by the Nazi propaganda machine as the "ideal German soldier" and appeared on Wehrmacht recruitment posters. His father was Jewish and was meant to be sent to Auschwitz, and was saved thanks to his son. These Jews managed to conceal their true identity, but every time the Nazis found Jews in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, they were immediately removed. Usually these were Jews described by the Nazi term "Mischling", referring to offspring of mixed marriages between Germans and Jews, which were common before the rise of the Third Reich. A Mischling of the first degree was someone with one Jewish parent - and their fate was death. A Mischling of the second degree was someone with only one Jewish grandparent. Until 1940, Mischlings of the second degree could be drafted into the Nazi army. In that year, Hitler signed a decree removing them from army ranks, and they were sent to forced labor. Subsequently, Heinrich Himmler ordered them murdered.
[1] page. 21x15 cm. Fold marks. Good condition.
